“The Walking Dead” Spin-off Confirmed

So this is news to me, but apparently AMC has been planning on making a spin-off show to their grossly successful series, “The Walking Dead” for some time, and now it is official. There are not many cold hard facts yet, but what has been confirmed is that the show will feature the same universe, but it will have an entirely new cast, and will not be set in Georgia according to creator Robert Kirkman.

Usually a spin-off is considered when a show has reached the end of its run, or at the very least has hit the 9th season. So for one of the most popular shows in recent memory to consider a spinoff at the height of its popularity, one of two things is often the cause.

A: The show is immensely popular and the creators have a genuinely fresh and unique idea they want to tell that cannot be fit into the current story, but holds a wealth of possibility.

Or

B: The show is immensely popular and those at the top want to milk it for all it is worth while they still can, because at the moment, it is guaranteed to be a success regardless of its quality.

While everyone hopes for the former, the pessimist in me leads me to believe to gravitate towards the latter. Luckily Kirkman agrees. “It’s important to us that this show exists on its own. The Spinoff has to be a show worthy of existing, or else we’ve all sold out. So that’s something we’re all working hard towards doing, and I think we can pull it off. I think that the ideal situation is, when you’re watching the spinoff, you’re like, ‘Wow, this is a really awesome show.’ The whole other show doesn’t need to exist for this show to be cool and stand on its own.”

It is rather comforting to see one of the major players behind the show saying it needs to actually be good and not just a cash cow. The rough release date for the spinoff is sometime in 2015, however that is subject to change.